A Single Man is a film full of texture and sensations – the smell of a dog’s coat, wet black ink seeping on to crisp white sheets, cigarette smoke swirling around lips and naked limbs flailing deep in water. Given that this is fashion designer Tom Ford’s directorial debut, this is perhaps unsurprising; fashion has always required a heightened sense for the touch and feel of items. What is perhaps unexpected is how effective Ford’s approach is in creating an atmospheric mood piece about one man’s personal grief.
A Single Man depicts a day in the life of George (Colin Firth) an English professor living in Los Angeles, plagued by grief after the death of his partner Jim (Matthew Goode) who was killed a few months previously in a car crash. We see him go through the motions of his typical day, he gets up and gets dressed in his immaculate house, he gives a lecture and talks to one of his students, the inquisitive Kenny (Nicholas Hoult) before meeting with his close friend Charley (Julianne Moore) for supper. Yet at every turn there is something to remind him of his dead lover. Flashbacks and memories are entwined with the texture of images to form a patchwork of recollections. Ford’s says he “broke everyone’s rule” with his approach to the film where he “wrote [the screenplay] from the images”. “I built a book of images, a binder, for every character and for the period, and while I was writing I flipped through, and some things write their way through.”
A Single Man stands out for its stylish mise-en-scene, defined through impeccable set design (some parts of the film were shot in a house designed by John Lautner) and perfect outfits (well, what else did you expect), all of which is captured through stylish cinematography. There’s use of slow motion which gives a dreamlike eminence to much of the film and an abundance of close-ups which highlight small details such as tapping shoes on a shiny black lacquer floor, adding a meditative quality to the film. Often the images are reminiscent of expensive advertisements from perfume and fashion houses such as the bright turquoise of the underwater scenes accompanied by the nude male figure recalling Davidoff’s fragrance campaign. There is also a distinctive use of colour throughout the film, leached out during moments of despair and radiates with warmth during moments of happiness. At one point a memory is presented in black and white, giving it an iconic and photographic quality.
There is no denying that Tom Ford has a fine eye for what makes a striking shot, yet A Single Man succeeds in being more than just a stylish recreation of his subject’s life. The film is an adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s 1964 novel of the same name which is hailed as a defining book of the gay liberation movement and Ford’s film is a snapshot into these less liberal times. In one memorable scene George hears of the death of his partner over the phone and is asked politely not to attend the funeral. Colin Firth’s performance is a remarkable portrayal of restraint teetering on emotional breakdown and Ford’s camera fixes on the scene like an unblinking eye, perfectly summarising the destructive impact of society’s homophobia. Ford felt an emotional connection to Isherwood’s work and was inspired to embark on the project after re-reading the book five years ago. “It resonated with me in a completely different way. It is a deeply spiritual story: one day in the life of a man who can’t see his future. It’s written in the third person with his true self or soul observing his false self or earthbound, material self move through the day – which I didn’t get when I was 20 years old, but now I do.”
Ultimately, however A Single Man is a portrait of grief and for this Ford drew upon his own experiences of the death of a relative, integrating them into Isherwood’s story. “I had to create a plot which was the suicide, a suicide taken from my own family. And [he] really zipped himself in a sleeping bag and killed himself after he’d laid out his suit and cufflinks and shirt. I grafted a lot of my own personal things – but only things I related to in the book.” The sensual aspects of the film, the flashbacks and memories come together to form a tangled mass of emotions – loss, desire, lust and despair. It could easily have felt somewhat incongruent yet Firth’s performance carries the character and is full of subtleties which bring an emotional depth to Ford’s aesthetics and most importantly leave a lingering poignancy.
